„Can you just leave me alone for once?!" Emma was furious, waving her hands in the air, turning to Hook with her back.
"Maybe you should just talk to me, love, and tell me what bothers you…" Hook made a step forward, trying to reach Emma with his hand.
Emma didn't allow him to touch her and turned around angrily.
"You want to know what bothers me? You! It's you, every time! Now go away, please!" She left him standing there, walking quickly to the small pond and the bench.
Hook was watching her as she was sitting there for a while, not being able to decide whether he should go after her or if he should just leave. Finally he decided to leave, thinking that she would come to him sooner or later anyway.
When Emma relaxed on the bench, she let her walls fall and hot tears started to run down her face. She put her feet up and leaned her head on her knees, hugging her legs, sobbing and watching the water.
"Hey…" The quiet word she heard suddenly woke her up from her thoughts. She looked up and saw Regina with a sheepish face. "May I?"
The blonde didn't answer, she just shrugged her shoulders and looked back at the pond.
None of them said anything for a while, both of them lost in their own minds.
It was Regina who broke the silence.
"I… heard you and Hook argue."
"What?!" Emma turned to her unbelievably. "Were you spying on us?! On me?!"
"No! Why would I do that?"
"I don't know… To destroy my happiness when I destroyed yours?" Emma's tone was defeated, she knew that it was a nonsense.
"I was here to be alone. I have no intention in destroying your happiness, as you call it. Besides, I don't think you need any help in that." Regina sighed and leaned back.
"What do you mean?" She sounded confused, not quite sure what to think.
"Nothing. Just that you aren't clearly as happy as you claim to be. With the handless wonder, I mean."
Emma didn't say anything, she just kept staring at the water. It calmed her down, at least a little bit.
"You can talk about it with me, you know…" Regina looked at the blonde. She saw a sad and confused face, wet from tears, with more ones running down.
"Why would you care?" Emma turned to face her, her voice quiet, almost a whisper as she was trying not to sound broken.
"I might simply be the only one who doesn't expect you to be perfect and to date a guy to be happy. Also, believe it or not, I do care about you."
"You do? Why?"
"I think you have too many questions. That's a whole different story. We are talking about you now, not about me." Regina turned to face the water so she didn't have to look Emma in the eyes.
There was the silence again, before Emma decided that she could share her thoughts with Regina.
"It's just… I feel like I have to date him. Like everyone is expecting me to, like it would be some kind of a sign that I got over Neal's death, over everything! I mean, he was quite fun at the beginning, but he's just stalking me the whole time, always appears on places no one expects him to be, making his insulting comments! Everyone, including my parents, is encouraging me to go on a proper date with him! It's like everyone thinks I can only be happy if I date him!"
"You can date someone else…"
"Yeah, like whom, Grumpy?" Emma said contemptuously.
Regina didn't say anything. She took a deep breath and reached out to hold Emma's hand. Then she turned to look her in the eyes.
"You don't have to date anyone to be happy. No matter what your idiotic parents think. But if you would like to, there are other people in this town."
"Like who?" The water might have calmed Emma down but she was more and more confused.
Regina didn't answer this question either, she just dropped her eyes to look at her hand touching Emma's.
Emma followed her gaze and her eyes widened when she saw it.
"You? I should date you?" She was surprised but she was sure this was what Regina really meant.
"I didn't say anything like that!" The brunette pulled her hand back.
The blonde was watching her for a moment, thinking and processing what has been just revealed.
"Okay. I can do that, if you want to." The blonde moved closer and put her head on Regina's shoulder, grabbing her hand and tangling their fingers together.